An experienced natural history and botanical illustrator, Lizzie’s work appears in books and magazines around the world, on postage stamps and mugs. She lives very happily in Hay on Wye, and works her garden studio surrounded by plants and birds.
Explore my website and discover:
If you’re interested in finding out what I’m working on at the moment, follow my blog or find me on instagram.
For details of Lizzie’s workshops, exhibitions, and information about greetings cards and ordering prints, click on the links.
Below are some links to Lizzie’s latest blogs and Instagram posts.
Just completed this illustration of the Queen butterfly Danaus gilippus and the monarch butterfly D. plexippus on the mexican milkweed Asclepias curassavica.
I tried to include all the life cycle stages for both species (except the eggs). I enjoy doing this, it's a nod to one of my heroes, Maria Sibylla Merian.
This illustration is for a client who grown Mexican milkweed (or bloodflower) in her garden, expressly to encourage these two species of butterfly. Wildlife gardening is SUCH a good idea!
I particularly enjoyed tiny dots of gold leaf to the pupa - I've never used gold leaf on my illustrations before and it was fun. Very discreet use of bling (many who know me and my penchant for glitter and costume jewellery will say, in a tired voice, "well THAT makes a nice change!")
Planting milkweeds (if you live in the US) can really help the Monarchs keep up their energy on the long commute south.
#butterfly #monarchbutterfly #queenbutterfly #butterfly #butterflies #milkweed #botanicalillustration #insectillustration #Queen #paintingbutterflies #monarch #naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration #wildlifegardening
This is Broom Cystisus scoparius
I love this plant, when it flower it's beautiful, with delicate pale yellow flowers. It's rather like a gorse without spines. Both are in the pea family, and have nodules on their roots which help fix nitrogen (and this benefit the soil and other plants growing nearby).
Supposedly it's mildly narcotic, and sheep have been become "tipsy" after eating too much broom. It's shoots were boiled and served in posh houses like asparagus; and it was meant to be and aphrodisiac.
The seed pods (which are in evidence now) are very cool. When ripe, and especially in the heat of an autumn sun, they split by twisting in a spiral. The seeds are shot out with some force, sometimes you can hear the pods "crack" as they open. This ensures that the seeds are spread way beyond the parent plant. Seed dispersal in plants is fascinating; such cunning mechanical devices at play.
#broom #cystisus #fabeaceae #peafamily #nitrogen #botany #seeddispersal #botanicalillustration #botanicalart #flowerart #flowerpainting #wildflowers #watercolour #traditionalillustration
This is Seaside centaury, done a while ago for a Coastal flowers postage stamp issue.
@jsypost have commissioned several sets of stamps over the years, and there's a very specific set of challenges that come with stamp design.
You need to provide variety of form and composition, as well as of subject across the 6 stamps in an issue. But you also need to leave space for the species name, the name of the stamp issuer ( in this case Jersey), and space for the queen's head (called the gudgeon). Lucky that stamp artwork is completed 4x repro size - gives us space to sort it all out without it looking too cramped!
I love the pinks in this delicate flower, always a joy to play with some opera rose watercolour paints....
Stamp artwork ©️ jersey post 2020
#centaury #stampdesign #philately #seasidecentaury #coastalflowers #seasideflowers #flowerart #sciart #naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration #botanicalillustration #stamps #postagestamps #timbres #sea #coast
My autumn newsletter is out today, do take a look:
https://mailchi.mp/d5974939bfb3/lizzie-harper-newsletter-september
It covers all the jobs I've been working on recently, blogs I've written, upcoming commissions, books I've been lucky enough to illustrate, shares some works in progress, and details of zoom sessions and YouTube fms I've done.
Take a look!
The picture of the blue morpho butterfly is from Thirty Animals that made us Smarter by Patrick Aryee, the orchid is for a decorative series of coins, the oyster mushrooms are works in progress, bracken is from a blog, the shark is also from 30 animals... If you check out the newsletter you'll find it all out.
Thanks everyone!
Here's to the next 3 months of illustrating!
#naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration #botanicalillustration #30animalsthatmadeussmarter #seasideflowers #flowerart #sciart #notahobby #illustration #bookillustration #nonfiction #popularscience #bluenmorpho #orchid #oystemushroom #fungi #shark #trees #downybirch #birch #bracken #beetles #biomimicry #natureshiddencharms @welbeckpublish @patrick_goeswild @penguinukbooks @fscbiolinks @theaoi
This is a pen and ink illustration of the Kingfisher Alcedo atthis. Watercolour was added on top.
This picture appears in "30 animals that made us smarter" by Patrick Aryee which was published in early September.
The Kingfisher appears in this fab book about biomimicry (humans learning from, and being inspired to invent stuff, by nature) due to its beak. Streamlined, the beak pierces the water at high speeds, allowing the Kingfisher to catch fish.
Inventors took this as a starting point, and designed the nose of the hogh-speed bullet train in Japan along similar lines. This not only added speed to the train, but also got rid of the problem of sonic boom.
Very cool.
Kingfishers live by rivers, have Bank side tunnels as nests, and eat small fish like minnows and stickleback. If you're lucky, you might see them perched over slow moving water, or more probably as a flash of azure and gold as they dart past.
They're busy, the Kingfisher needs to catch and eat its own weight in fish every day.
#kingfisher #alcedoatthis #30animals #biomimicry #bioengineering #inspiringnature #naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration #sciart #penandink #bookillustration #birdart #bullettrain @patrick_goeswild @penguinbooks @penguinukbooks @bbcworldservice
New blog out, all about what paintbrushes I like:
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2021/09/equipment-paintbrushes/
I'm addicted to @winsorandnewton Series 7 brushes (what would I do without them??), but also mention @zenartsupplies and @rosemarybrushes Artists Brushes.
I'm still looking for a good, cheap, synthetic alternative to my beloved Series 7 brushes...please give me suggestions to try in the comments section under my blog!
#botanicalillustration #botanicalart #naturalhistoryillustration #sciArt #naturalscienceillustration #watercolour #watercolor #review #paintbrush #paintbrushes #artequipment #series7 #series7brushes
New book out, this one's called "Nature's Hidden Charms", by Liz Dean and is published by Wellbeck publishing.
It's got loads of my plant and animal illustrations in, and I love the way the books bern laid out - the chapter opener full pages are such a classy touch!
So this snippet (probably cut off in all the wrong places) is me getting the book out the envelope and seeing it fir the first time. An "unboxing", as I believe the young 'uns would say...
Now all I need to do is to read it!
#bookillustration #botanicalillustration #sciart #naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration #unboxing #newbook #illustration #illustrstorslife #notahobby #bookart
New illustration hot off the press. This is a time-lapse of my pen and ink illustration of a Europwan hedgehog in a log pile.
The hedgehog is surrounded by grass and nettles, and there are fungi abd bracket fungi growing from the log pile. A small tortoiseshell butterfly (host plant nettle) flutters above
This is an illustration for a book I'm working on with Penguin press, once it's ready to go to print I'll be able to share more details with you.
#hedgehog #logpile #penandink #wildlifegardening #wildlifegarden #nettles #urticadioca #smalltortoiseshell #butterfly #smalltortoiseshellbutterfly #pen #bookillustration #naturalhistoryillustration
Lizzie has many original illustrations for sale.
In all cases, email her on info@lizzieharper.co.uk if you’d like to buy one of these natural history paintings, drawings, or studies.
Below is an illustrated list of all her original work currently on sale, divided into framed and unframed categories, and subject matter.
